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. 2018;46(3):435-444.
doi: 10.1007/s10745-018-9997-7. Epub 2018 Apr 24.

Historical Tropical Forest Reliance amongst the Wanniyalaeto (Vedda) of Sri Lanka: an Isotopic Perspective

Patrick Roberts  1   2 , Thomas H Gillingwater  3 , Marta Mirazon Lahr  4 , Julia Lee-Thorp  2 , Malcolm MacCallum  3 , Michael Petraglia  1 , Oshan Wedage  1   5 , Uruwaruge Heenbanda  6 , Uruwaruge Wainnya-Laeto  6
Affiliations

Historical Tropical Forest Reliance amongst the Wanniyalaeto (Vedda) of Sri Lanka: an Isotopic Perspective

Patrick Roberts et al. Hum Ecol Interdiscip J. 2018.

Abstract

Headland and Bailey (1991) argued in Human Ecology that tropical forests could not support long-term human foraging in the absence of agriculture. Part of their thesis was based on the fact that supposedly isolated 'forest' foragers, such as the Wanniyalaeto (or Vedda) peoples of Sri Lanka, could be demonstrated to be enmeshed within historical trade networks and rely on crops as part of their overall subsistence. Yet, in the same volume and in the years that followed scholars have presented ethnographic and archaeological evidence, including from Sri Lanka, that counter this proposition, demonstrating the occupation and exploitation of tropical rainforest environments back to 38,000 years ago (ka) in this part of the world. However, archaeological and ethnohistorical research has yet to quantify the overall reliance of human foragers on tropical forest resources through time. Here, we report stable carbon and oxygen isotope data from historical Wanniyalaeto individuals from Sri Lanka, in full collaboration with the present-day members of this group, that suggest that while a number of individuals made use of agricultural resources in the recent past, others subsisted primarily on tropical forest resources as late as the 1800s.

Keywords: Hunter-gatherers; Indigenous peoples; Sri Lanka; Stable light isotopes; The Wanniyalaeto; Tropical rainforest.

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Conflict of interest statement

Compliance with Ethical StandardsEthical permission for this study was obtained from the Council of Wanniyalaeto Elders in Sri Lanka. This project is also part of a wider project between the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History and the Wanniyalaeto that has been granted ethical clearance by the Universitäts Klinikum Ethiks Kommittee, Friedrich Schiller Universität, Jena, Germany and the University of Jayawardenepura, Colombo, Sri Lanka.Authors Uruwaruge Heenbanda and Uruwaruge Wainnya-laeto are Wanniyalaeto elders and have a cultural interest in the results obtained. However, both ethics boards mentioned above found that there was no conflict of interest in their participation in this research. These authors were not responsible for the production of the data and primarily assisted in the cultural history and interpretation of the data reported in this manuscript. The remaining authors have no conflict of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Map showing the vegetation zones of Sri Lanka after Erdelen (1988) and Roberts et al. (2015a)
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
δ13C and δ18O measurements of Wanniyalaeto (“Vedda”) individuals analysed in this study. Dashed lines delineate estimated tooth enamel δ13C for individuals living under a dense “canopy”, individuals consuming 100% C3 resources, and individuals consuming 100% C4 resources from the literature (Lee-Thorp et al. , ; Levin et al. ; Roberts et al. 2015a, 2017)
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
δ13C measurements of individuals from the Wanniyalaeto (“Vedda”) individuals analysed in this study as well as prehistoric human samples from Terminal Pleistocene/Holocene (Roberts et al. 2015a, 2017) (c. 12–3 ka) and Late Pleistocene (c. 36–13 ka) (Roberts et al. 2017) Sri Lanka, and Pre-Neolithic and Neolithic/Early Metal Age individuals from Sarawak, Borneo (Krigbaum 2003, 2005). The divisions for individuals living under a dense “canopy”, individuals consuming 100% C3 resources, and individuals consuming 100% C4 resources from the literature are again shown with dashed lines
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
δ18O measurements of individuals from the Wanniyalaeto (“Vedda”) individuals analysed in this study as well as prehistoric human samples from Terminal Pleistocene/Holocene (Roberts et al. 2015a, 2017) (c. 12–3 ka) and Late Pleistocene (c. 36–13 ka) (Roberts et al. 2017) Sri Lanka, and Pre-Neolithic and Neolithic/Early Metal Age individuals from Sarawak, Borneo (Krigbaum 2003, 2005)
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